Plus, Alternative Press Expo hits downtown San Jose this weekend

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Columnist Gustavo Arellano, whose political column, “Ask a Mexican,” is
being adapated into a theater piece that has its first staged reading at
MACLA in downtown San Jose on Friday, Sept. 22, 2017. (Photo courtesy MACLA)

Gustavo Arellano‘s satirical column in the alternative OC Weekly, “Ask a Mexican!” is being turned into a theater piece, and it’s going to have its first staged reading Friday night at MACLA in downtown San Jose. If you haven’t read Arrellano’s column, imagine “Ask Amy” but with a lot more ethnic humor and a scathing hatred of Donald Trump.

Playwright Anthony J. Garcia has translated Arellano’s biting work for the stage, exploring race relations through humor and satire. Garcia and Arellano will open the reading with remarks at 7:30 p.m., and after the performance, Arellano will answer questions in his “Mexican” persona.

Like the column, the play is intended to skewer the stereotypes people have about Mexicans with humor — whether you’re talking about lowriders or movie stars — and will be developed with further readings in Albuquerque, Denver and Pueblo, Colo. But San Joseans can say they saw it first.

Tickets are $10 at the door, $5 for students, and you can get more information at www.maclaarte.org.

GO APE FOR THIS CONVENTION: The Alternative Press Expo, one of San Jose’s best home-grown conventions, is this weekend — a little earlier than usual — but that hasn’t stopped convention founder and SLG Publishing founder Dan Vado from putting together a good lineup of special guests who are outside the mainstream.

That includes indie comic creator John “Derf” Backderf, whose 2002 bestseller, “My Friend Dahmer,” about this teenage friendship with serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer has been adapted as a movie set for a November release. Others include cartoonist and illustrator Steve Lafler, who’s currently working on the “Death in Oaxaca” series for Cupertino publisher Alternative Comics, and San Jose’s own Jhonen Vasquez, known to a generation of millennials for creating Nickelodeon’s “Invader Zim” series.

The convention is set for Saturday and Sunday at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center’s South Hall — that’s the big blue-and-white tent. Check out the schedule and ticket info — it’s a very affordable $10 admission each day — at www.alternativepressexpo.com.

MUSICAL COUCHES: The SoFA Street Fair returns with its fall edition on Sunday, and that means there’ll be more than 100 bands playing on 16 stages — including four outdoor stages — along downtown San Jose’s South First Street. Of course, there’ll be food trucks and craft beers in the three blocks that make up the arty South First Area, and yes, there are lots of sofas at the SoFA Street Fair.

It all gets started at 2 p.m., and admission is free. The schedule of bands is available at sofafall2017.sched.com.

THE RETURN OF THE DEMON!: For this year’s Halloween Haunt, which opens Friday, California’s Great America is bringing back some of the spooky features of the Demon roller coaster — including having Tony Award winning performer and Hayward native James Monroe Iglehart, currently appearing in “Hamilton” on Broadway, voicing the ride’s title character.

The coaster — which first opened as the Turn of the Century — had been toned down a bit from its devilish 1980 makeover when it was rebranded with the Looney Toons Tasmanian Devil character. But for this year’s Halloween event, running weekends through Oct. 29, the water at the ride’s waterfall again will run blood-red and the original lights, music and fog will be back, too.

Sal Pizarro has written the Around Town column for The Mercury News since 2005. His column covers the people and events surrounding the cultural scene in Silicon Valley. In addition, he writes Cocktail Chronicles, a feature column on Silicon Valley bars and nightclubs.